YouTube Fights Back Against Turkish Ban

YouTube has taken the fight against Turkey straight to the Constitutional Court

YouTube has finally filed a formal complaint to the Turkish Constitutional Court regarding the state-wide ban of the site.

Gönenç Gürkaynak, the company’s lawyer, also filed a lawsuit in the 4th Administrative Court of Ankara, Hurriyet Daily News reports, also demanding that the ban be canceled.

Access to YouTube was blocked on March 27, a week after Twitter access was restricted as well, ahead of the local elections. The ban on the popular video streaming site came after a user uploaded 15 leaked videos showing government meetings about military operations in Syria under false pretexts.

The Turkish government demands that Google remove the leaked material from the site, but that doesn’t seem likely, especially since YouTube stands against censorship. Furthermore, the company regularly refuses to take down YouTube videos that indicate government corruption in any country of the world.

The blockade has caused quite a stir on Twitter, where users have complained about the inability to access the site for days, while the International community condemned the blatant effort to censor content and to restrict user access to the compromising videos.